The Lincoln Electric Company Culture

The Lincoln Electric company, under the leadership of James F. Lincoln saw a major shift in the way business was to be directed and operated with visionary mind-set emulating companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Merck, 3M as focus was towards the customer’s needs and employee’s compensation. Philosophically customer needs become critical as the reason for being in business and the employees also being the vehicle in achieving the needs of the customers as the case study by Sharplin, A (1989, p.3) clearly positions the companies aspirations. James Lincoln places much importance on the relationship with employees that is guided by mutual respect and individual effort.

Every organization has values and beliefs that define what they do and how they do things in the organization. These values have significant influence on how the employees behaves and the general performance of the organization – it is these set of values and beliefs, rooted deep in the company’s organizational structure that depict the “dos”, “don’t” and the “hows”, of the organization and these unequivocally represents the culture of the organization. This concept became popular in the 1980s when Peters and Waterman in their book: “In search of Excellence” presented the profound argument that, the success of any organization is inextricable linked to the quality of its culture. (Carpenter, M., Taylor, B., Erdogan, B. 2009 p183). The purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyse the impact diverse cultures played in the success of the Lincoln Electric Company.

the years to be a global manufacturer of welding products and battery systems. The Lincoln

Established in 1895 and specialized in producing and selling electric motors, Lincoln Electric Company rapidly developed after the movement to welding equipment and consumable welding products in the USA. By 1995, this company first hit $1 billion in sales and became the world largest company in welding industry. With the differentiate strategy by providing premium -price -products , this company got 60% sales in the North American and expanded internationally since the period of 1986 and 1992. Although this company is facing problems in global expansions, its overall strategy as well as practices in human resources, marketing, technology development, and international expansions is a useful lesson for other businesses.

Headquartered in Cleveland Ohio, Lincoln electric’s business model consists of distributing welding consumables, equipment’s and solutions. Lincoln initially traded electric motor cars and steadily moved on to welding. Lincoln’s vision, led by founder John C. Lincoln is to provide high quality welding, joining and cutting equipment’s globally.

The Lincoln Electric Company was a legacy company from which the families ' personal values were incorporated in the beginning and continue to be the fundamental beliefs compromising the company 's culture. By creating and implementing a culture of service, respect, and loyalty, the Lincoln Electric Company has become an institutional leader in American business standards. Lincoln 's culture cannot be summarized by a single dimension of cultural analytics because of its multifaceted culture that is innovative, outcome-oriented, people-oriented, and team-oriented

Lincoln electric’s approach to management contributes to its employee’s high motivational rate. According to (Draft, 2010), Lincoln electric motivates it’s staff with “strict performance goals to achieve pay, precisely defined task and a powerful incentive control program which is based on a piece-rate bases and merit-pay which is based on performance”(p.562). Other motivating factors are annual bonuses and stock purchase plans which all employees are offered (Draft, 2010). Another contribution to its success is their organizational culture which is “based on openness, trust, shared control and an egalitarian spirit” (p. 562-563).

Lincoln Electric Company is a manufacturing company, which has been focusing on welding products for the recent 30 years. The company had outstanding brothers leading the company to success. John was a technical genius and he brought the best skills in production and James was good at management and he was working on the employees ' incentives. The company gained its reputation through the world war till present as the welding equipment supplier with higher quality and lower price at the same time. For the production aspect of welding equipment, it is an advanced production line with continuous flow with high flexibility and low idling time.

The written assignment of this week is going to focus on a very well known and well organized company. The Lincoln Electronic Company is the world largest manufacturer welding machine and electrodes. Since it has been created by the Lincoln family, the company has known enormous success, in this essay I going to look at some critical elements contributed that company’s success; such as:  The continuing influence of the founders of the company.  The incentive management plan.  The performance appraisal system.  The way people communicate in the company.

“We are a global manufacturer and the market leader of the highest quality welding, cutting and joining products. Our enduring passion for the development and application of our technologies allows us to create complete solutions that make our customers more productive and successful. We will distinguish ourselves through an unwavering commitment to our employees and a relentless drive to maximize shareholder value” (http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/company/Pages/vision-statement.aspx). This is the vision of James Lincoln, founder of Lincoln Electric Company. I will look at this vision and apply it towards the

Mutual respect is the foundation of all relationships in the Lincoln Company starting at the top of the firm. Respect is the ability to recognize of what is, a good manager are able to recognize the value of people, things and situations. A good team leader also evaluate the results and situations, take into account the pluses and the minuses, strengths and room for improvement, risks and opportunities…He is very interested in the potential of his employees. That is what James F Lincoln have brought since the beginning in the Lincoln Company. He understood that by seeking a committee advisor elected by the employees, on company operations is the best way to align a good management.

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling are the four basic management functions. These four functions serves as a general guiding rule for every organization or company towards the attainment of desirable leadership style. Executives’ drive the company pursuant to its mission statement, employees should have mutual respect to one another, and the company should offer an acceptable compensation. Thereby working as one community for a crystal clear vision. Having read the Lincoln Electric Company Harvard Case Study by Arthur Sharplin, I would like to contextualize my evaluation into different perspectives. These perspective includes: Continuing influence of the founders, the golden rule, compensation schemes, open communication, and management style. Continuing influence of the founders of the company "The actual is limited, the possible is immense.” With this slogan that the company has, it actually reflects how profound the influence of the founders to the current people living in the company. It was very clear to my understanding that Lincoln treated everything and everyone as associates. Lincoln’s did not only focus on the profitability he could gain with his product nor the productivity that the employees could offer, the founders had an exquisite realization of building relationship with their product, customers, employees and business partners. The influence that Lincoln’s as founders created paved way through an inevitable inspiration that up until today, people

“We will distinguish ourselves through an unwavering commitment to our employees and a relentless drive to maximize shareholder value”; as found within Lincoln Electrics’ Vision Statement (Lincoln Electric 1999-2016). The beliefs and values transferred from company founders and instilled into employees can have an overwhelming impact on corporate culture. By establishing a positive corporate culture one can influence exceptional company performance. This is clearly demonstrated by Lincoln Electric Company, from its early days until its present day. I will present how the Lincoln Electric Company has done just that!

After analyzing the story of Lincoln Electric Company I’ve come to the Conclusion that their organizational culture they practicing is People-oriented culture. Because the company values fairness, supportiveness and they respect individual rights. There is a greater emphasis on expectation of treating people with respect and dignity.

Lincoln Electric is an American multinational and a leading global manufacturer of arc-welding equipment and electric motor, is the biggest company among its related types of business in the world. Lincoln Electric has the advantage on its production. The board of directors of Lincoln Electric believes that the company can make high quality products with lower costs compared to its competitors. Their general strategies are to reduce the cost, and to reach consumers with sustainedly low price. Lincoln Electric has conceded that the source of growth of the company depends on consumers, they thus aim at offering high quality products with low price, and this sales policy has been lasting until now.